


i feel like i saw you dead

by hedwig_the_destoryer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:08:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27289171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hedwig_the_destoryer/pseuds/hedwig_the_destoryer
Summary: The war turns, but not in their favor. If they want what's left of their family to survive, Hermione must do the impossible.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

They stumbled to their feet as they landed, the rapid succession of apparition always seeming to get to them, even in their months of doing just that. Since their departure from the Burrow over a year prior they had become increasingly careful, paranoid some would say. Barely keeping in contact with the magical world they put around them every defensive spell known to man and several that Hermione herself had made up just for their cause. And for all the work they had done, all of the time they spent isolated from their world and families they only had two Horcruxes and a dozen scars to show for it.

“Are you alright?” Ron asked, the first one to speak, as he helped Hermione to her feet, she was never lucky to land right.

Hermione nodded, looking as though she was about to throw up, but holding it down for the time being. Harry, who never took to appertain as well as well as his friends, wasn’t quite as lucky. Beside him he was turned, looking green and desperate. Gently, Hermione rubbed his back for a moment, searching her beaded bag that they lived from for a moment before producing three mints. Unwrapping them she handed them out before returning to Ron’s side, wrapping her arms around his side.

“Are you okay?” She asked him quietly and Ron nodded, swallowing for a moment and blinking back the tears that dotted his eyes. “We can wait here for a moment.” She told him, “We don’t have to go in until you’re ready.”

For a moment Ron stared at her, holding her to his side and then looked up past her at the place that he had called home all of his life. Nothing had changed in the year that they had been gone, the house still sagged despite it’s magical bones and the worn exterior hadn’t been fixed. He breathed a sigh of relief, seeing it, despite everything that had happened and the mourning that was surely still going on inside, made him feel at least for a moment that everything was going to be alright.

They hadn’t planned on visiting again, not certainly now. But their plans had been changed when they heard voices outside of their tent. Unaware of the trio’s presence, the Death Eaters had spoken freely, bragging on their most recent triumphs. And while their talk of merciless killings had made Ron’s blood boil Hermione had kept him in check, occupying him until finally the words that Ron had been dreading to hear were spoken. His brother was dead.

Within five minutes the Death Eaters had been interrogated and their memories wiped, Hermione knocking them out and expertly stunning them so that they would awake thinking they had drunken themselves to such a state. They had packed up hastily and spent the next fifteen minutes making sure that they couldn’t have been followed before finally they had finished their journey at the edge of the Burrow’s property.

The news had numbed Ron, and he felt that he couldn’t do anything, feel anything until he knew for sure. Though deep down he supposed he already knew. Gently he squeezed Hermione to convey that he was ready and then she turned to his side, keeping her right arm wrapped around his side, and they started their walk. The last leg of their journey seemed to take no time at all and before Ron knew it they were before the house, close enough to see into the windows of the house. They were covered now, magically made so that the occupants could see out and no one could see in. If he knew no better the house would look abandoned, but it was their charms that were apart of making it so. The burrow because of it’s magical protections had been made into the safest place in England, and he would do anything to keep it that way.

Lost in his solitude Ron was startled when the door flew open and a streak of red hair bolted at them. Ron recognized his sister as she ran at them, tear streaks on her face as she nearly tacked Harry in a hug. She half shouted at him as Harry talked back to her, they recounting events more quickly than he could keep track. They shared a kiss before Ginny let go, hugging her brother quickly and then Hermione before returning to Harry’s waiting embrace. Together the four of them walked forward, meeting Molly who cautiously walked out of the house to meet them.

“We came as soon as we heard.” Ron said to his mother as he found her embrace, the tears that he had been holding back finally coming forward in his mother’s comforting embrace. He’d never been able to hide his true emotions from her, and now would not be an exception. “I’m so sorry.”

Molly pulled back, patting Ron’s face and smiling at him with a tired face. “I’m just glad that you’re alright.” She nodded, tears filling her own eyes. “We’ve been so worried about the three of you.”

She turned to Harry next, embracing him similarly as he whispered his condolences, Hermione stepping forward to wrap her arms back around Ron’s waist. For a moment longer Molly hugged Harry but then released him back to Ginny’s waiting arms and then turned to Hermione. Obediently, Hermione hugged Molly, though their hug was the briefest, and then Molly smiled at the three of them.

“Alright then, let’s go inside. It looks like you haven’t eaten anything since I last saw you.” She said, turning to hide the tears coming from her eyes, and she ushered them back into the house.

As it was dinner time, the table was already set, six empty places around the table. It appeared that Ginny had been the one assisting, spoons and forks thrown onto the table in her rush once she’d spotted the trio approaching.

“Who else is here?” Ron asked as they entered, he the last in, holding the door open for the rest.

“Bill and Flur are here, visiting for my birthday.” Molly answered him.

Hermione and Ron instantly looked at each other awkwardly. It was clear that they had forgotten her birthday and she smiled at them, knowing the shared look. “It’s quite alright dears, I’m just glad that you’re here whatever the circumstances.”

“Happy Birthday mum,” Ron said, walking over and kissing his mother’s cheek.

“Stop it,” Molly answered, hitting him with a towel though she looked pleased none the less. “Why don’t you give me a real present and help get some chairs so you three can join us? I’m going to go and see if I can find your father and brothers, they’ll be so happy to see you.”

She moved from the room with Ron, Harry joining Ron in the quest for seating, leaving Hermione alone with Ginny.

“Would you like some help?” Hermione asked, bending down to pick up a stray fork that had fallen, and then sent it to the sink to be washed magically.

“It’s about time you lot came around, we were starting to get worried.” Ginny said, expanding the table to fit three more. “Mum will never say it, but she’s been worried half to death, it’s been worse since Fred-“ Ginny stopped, tears instantly coming to her eyes.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Hermione said, moving quickly to wrap her arms around Ginny. “We came as soon as we heard.”

“I know,” Ginny answered, hugging Hermione back briefly before swatting her away. “It’s no matter. Now we’ve got George around, having someone to look after helps mum. Though, George is taking it harder than anymore. He blames himself, they,” she paused for a moment, then sighed. “I don’t suppose it matters if you know, I’m sure you’d figure it out either way. They’d been working on breaking into the slave trade, it’s small right now, but we’ve got intel that it’s getting bigger. We figure that it’s better to get someone in now than later. Eventually we want to get a safe house set up to get the girls to, that’s the real reason that Bill and Flur were going to come, don’t let mum on mind. We were hopping to get it set up and get a drop point so that George and F-Fred could start getting girls out. But, things haven’t gone exactly as planned. Fred and George saw a girl that they knew from school and Fred broke protocol, he tried to take her straight out. They got caught and Fred got killed in the cross fire.”

Ginny swallowed heavily and then patted at the tears that had leaked from her eyes. “It’s hard enough losing a brother, but seeing George mope around like he does. It’s like we’ve got his ghost still with us.”

“I wish there was something that we could do.” Hermione said regretfully and Ginny shrugged at her, picking up the silverware that she’d dropped to distract herself.

“You three being here is more help than you know.” Ginny answered, sorting out the forks and spoons, handing half to Hermione. She spotted the rings on her finger and then grinned up at Hermione. “Besides it looks like you’ve got news of your own. Congratulations.”

Hermione glanced down at her wedding ring quickly and then shook her head. “Please, don’t tell anyone. We really didn’t want the focus to be on us.”

“Why? We’re thrilled to have you in the family,” Ginny told her, still smiling and she gave Hermione another quick hug. “Don’t tell anyone, but you’re absolutely my favorite sister-in-law.”

“Ginny,” Hermione begged of her, “Please.”

“Oh, alright then, I’ll keep quiet.” Ginny agreed with a cheeky grin and added. “But it’s only a matter of time until someone else notices.”

“It’s not like I can take them off,” Hermione answered her, moving on to set the table before her mother-in-law would return. “We eloped.”

“It’s about time too,” Ginny said and then quickly added as the sound of people getting nearer was evident. “You’ll have to tell me everything tonight, promise?”

Hermione nodded as the door opened, Harry and Ron returning with three chairs followed by the rest of the Weasley clan.

“‘Ermione!” Fleur exclaimed, moving quickly to hug Hermione with excitement. Hermione could see by the faint lipstick marks on Harry and Ron’s cheeks that they had already been subjected to the same treatment. “Et iz so good to zee you!”

“It’s good to see you too.” Hermione answered her and quickly Flur was replaced by her husband, giving Hermione a quick hug before they moved onto the other side of the kitchen, helping Molly put the dishes onto the table.

“I say that this calls for some wine.” Arthur said, producing a bottle from behind his back and handing it to his wife. “Happy Birthday love.”

Molly giggled as he kissed her cheek and took the bottle from his hands. She looked at the label for a moment and then shook her head at him. “Arthur, where ever did you get the money for this?”

“Don’t you worry about that.” He answered her, taking the bottle back and pulling out a chair for her. “It’s your birthday, you just sit here and let us do the work.”

Before they knew it, everyone was settled at the table, dishes being passed around and for the first time in anyone could remember, there was no sadness. George, who had been late coming to the table, even showed a hint of his former self, laughing along and for the first time since his brother’s death even made his own jokes. Wine was poured into glasses and passed around.

Arthur stood up, holding his glass in the air and gently hit it with his knife. “Before we get started on this wonderful dinner that my lovely wife has prepared, I’d like to say a few words.” The table settled back, looking over at him respectfully. “Molly, you have been the light of my world for as long as I can remember. Ever since I laid eyes on you, I can’t help but be entranced by your beauty. And even now, I am grateful that I get to spend these days with you. You are such an incredible woman and I hope that I get to spend many more birthdays with you. To my lovely wife, incredible mother, and the most wonderful woman in the world.”

“Hear hear!” they called out together, raising their glasses and just as they were about to drink, Molly let out a squeal.

“I can’t believe it!” she called out, eyes trained on Ron and Hermione who already had their wands pulled and were scanning the room for danger.

Realizing first what Molly was talking about, Harry leaned to Hermione and whispered in her ear. Hermione blushed and gave a look to Ron who instantly knew what his wife meant.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Molly asked, tears of joy in her eyes. “My baby boy, married.”

Once he was certain that his mother wasn’t angry Ron laughed, wrapping his arm around Hermione and they grinned at the gathered family. “I guess now is as good of time as any,” Ron said jokingly, grinning at his mother. “Mum, Dad, I’d like you to meet Hermione, my wife.”


	2. Chapter 2

“We won’t make a mess.” Bill promised his mother as she yawned, hugging her family before she walked up the stairs. “You just get some rest.”

“You better not.” Molly told him, hugging her eldest son last.

“Love you mum,” he told his mother, who waved one final time before disappearing up the stairs.

Bill picked up her glass and taking it with him to the kitchen before remerging with a fresh bottle of wine, topping off his own glass as he walked. Doors could be heard shutting and it wasn’t until Bill seemed sure that his mother was out of ear shot that his demeanor changed. It was the moment that Hermione had been waiting for since Ginny had told her the true story of Fred’s death and the original intention behind their visit. Hermione took out her wand and, once getting the nod from the eldest of the Weasley children, cast a series of spells.

“There’s no way that they can hear us,” she confirmed to the waiting room, referring to the eldest Weasley’s who had retired.

“Ginny are you sure-“ Bill started, looking over at her sister who was cuddled with Harry on the couch with Hermione and Ron beside them in a similar state of entanglement.

“Don’t you dare cut me out now,” Ginny warned, shaking her head as she sat forward. “I’ve been apart of this from the beginning, I know just as much as you do.”

“Fair enough,” he nodded, pulling out a small piece of worn paper from his back pocket and expanding the coffee table, set the paper down. “I don’t know how much you three know, or what you’ve been up to. But here’s what we’ve been doing.”

Touching the paper with the tip of his wand, they all watched as it magically expanded and with a quick mummer of words from Bill, the paper went from being went from being in code to in English. Before them sat a large map of England and the sounding countries. Towns changed from their normal black and white state to being color coded, popping off the page and names of people, their people flashed from within.

“This is a map of, from what we can gather, everywhere that Voldemort has expanded. Our focus for the better part of the past year has been on what’s highlighted in red.” Bill spoke, waving his wand so that the other towns shrank, but not by much. The map still seemed to be dominated by red and the raises places seemed to be higher than ever with their counterparts gone. “Otherwise known as the sex trade.”

Hermione leaned forward with her counterparts, examining the map carefully as George recounted what Ginny had told Hermione earlier. Focusing on the map she stared for a moment, picturing the hundreds of girls that map depicted. She didn’t know what to think. The very fought made her sick. Unable to think about it for too long she leaned back, snuggling against Ron while Ginny at her other side, began to talk animatedly.

“Anyway, once George starts rescuing the girls next month we’re going to have finished setting up our house.” Bill added, and Hermione blinked at him.

“You mean that you’re going to be a house for the girls?” she asked of him. “How will that work?”

Bill, surprised by her question, turned to Fleur, looking at her expectantly.

“We’ve never done something like this before,” she answered honestly, shrugging. “We can only imagine what the girls will need besides food and sleep of course. We’ve read all that there is to read, well,” she grinned at her husband. “I have anyway. Depending on how long the girl has been in the trade and how she was treated it’s very possible that she’ll want to go back. Thankfully they don’t know where they’ve been half the time and have no way of getting back. We’ll have to do our best to rehabilitate them and keep them there until we think we can send them to the network of more permeant safe houses we’ve set up.”

“That’s a large undertaking.” Hermione told them, “you’ll be wanted, and heaven forbid, George get’s caught and they manage to extract-“

“We know,” George cut her off, shaking his head at the prospect. “We’re lucky it didn’t happen with Fred. We can’t afford to think like that. I can’t get caught and they can’t be found out, simple as that.”

Silence followed his statement and they stared at each other. “I’m sorry,” she told them, meeting their eyes, “but you have to know what you’re getting into.” She looked back at Ron and Harry, taking Ron’s hand into hers and she stared back at them. “I don’t think that we did.”

“What have you been up to?” Ginny asked them boldly. “I know that you can’t tell us what exactly you’re doing, but let us know something at least. Anything that can help us.”

Both Ron and Hermione turned to look at Harry who shrugged at them, sending all eyes in the room on him.

“I mean, we can’t tell them everything, and nothing specific mind, but there’s no harm in letting them know what we’ve found out.” Ron finally spoke and Harry nodded his consent.

“As you know we’ve been looking for something.” Harry began, turning to face his audience. “We’ve managed to find parts of it, but have still to manage to get all of it. During our travels we’ve had some very close encounters with some people, mind we’re not looking to fight people, we’re really trying to keep from fighting. The more people that know what we’re doing, the harder it’s going to get.”

“What do you mean close encounters?” Ginny asked and Harry looked over and Ron and Hermione, already moved closer to each other when they even through of the memory.

“We were in the middle of the black market, hunting on a tip that we’d gotten. We weren’t sure that it wasn’t a trap, we never are,” Ron said, wrapping his arm around Hermione and holding her hand. “It’d been a long journey, we’d been in France the night before, and weren’t sure that we could risk staying long. We’d been searching for most of the day, going into the backs of stores me and Hermione and we were at the last possible place. I was chatting up the shop keeper, trying to get us in and when that didn’t work, I started to distract him so that Hermione could have a look around. The next thing I knew the door that she’d gotten in with shut and I could hear her screaming.”

“They’d grabbed me just as I’d found what we needed. I thought they had just caught me stealing, and so I tried to play it off. But they hadn’t a clue. They took me through some alleyways, speaking in fast Goblin of all things. I was able to catch most of it, and figured out where they were taking me. We’d gotten all the way to the appertain point and I knew that I didn’t have much time left, I distracted them, hitting one with the, um, object I’d taken, and then stealing his wand. I knew that they weren’t English so I started to speak to them in as many languages as I could think of and finally settled on Bulgarian. I tried leaving, but there was some spell that they hadn’t cast yet. I tried to get them to unlock the point but he wouldn’t do it, telling me again and again exactly what they were going to do to me once they’d taken me.”

“I’d figured out several minutes before what had happened and had stunned the storekeeper, gotten the entrance reopened and managed to break my way back into the tunnel entrance.” Ron added to the story, “I just remember running down that tunnel and hearing someone screaming, I thought that it was Hermione, that they were torturing her for information. But when I got closer I could tell that it wasn’t her.” Ron smiled down at his wife proudly. “I look around the coiner only to see both her captors on their knees, begging for mercy though I couldn’t understand a word they were saying, and Hermione screaming at them. We stunned them and ran back through the tunnel.”

“He walked in just at the right moment too, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stun them both and hit the person I heard coming around the corner. I saw Ron just as the other person walked in, and he hit them.” Hermione told them, squeezing Ron’s hand as she spoke.

“You said that they were speaking a goblin?” George asked her in surprise.

Ron shot a look at him and then at Hermione. “Really, that’s what you’re wondering about?’

“Ron,” Hermione stilled him, putting a hand on his arm. He nodded at he and she turned back to George. “Yes, they were speaking it. I’d just started to learn it, so I was surprised myself when I heard it. I thought that I was mad but I’m positive.”

“That’s good,” George said with alaugh, turning back to Bill, “You know goblin.”

“What?” Ron asked of him, leaning forward, “Why’s that such a good thing?”

“We could never figure out what they were speaking. We’d tried every language that we could think of, but never ever could we think that they’d be speaking Goblin.” He laughed at her, and for the first time since they’d arrived, he looked genuinely happy. “Hermione, you are absolutely brilliant. I could kiss you.”

“I think I’ll do this kissing around here.” Ron said defensively and for good measure kissed her on the cheek.

“Quite right too,” George said to her, “you better keep her little bother, you married a good one.”

“I should think so,” Ron grinned at her, “Don’t worry, she’s not going anywhere now.”

The look that Ron was giving her Hermione felt go straight to her soul and she couldn’t help but smile back at him. This was the place that she wanted to be, and she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.


End file.
